Bibliometrics

1. Bibliometrics Mary L. Van Allen Thomson Scientific Research Services Group January 2006

2. Metrics – how many ways can we count? • Cybermetrics • Scientometrics • Informetrics • Webometrics Bibliometrics: the statistical analysis of bibliographic data, mainly in scientific and technical literatures. It measures the amount of scientific activity in a subject category, journal, country, topic or other area of interest. (Henry Small) “…Bibliometrics is the application of mathematics and statistical methods to analyze the course of the written communication and the course of a discipline.” (Ernesto Spinak) It displays a landscape of scientific communication and productivity by examining the elements of bibliographic records (citations) and the relationships between citations.

3. Approaches to Evaluation using Bibliometric Methods • Theory of citation: • Citations are a form of peer recognition • Basic measures: • Papers, citations, citations per paper (impact) • Relative measures: • impact relative to baselines; • expected citation rates for articles; • percentiles • Units of analysis: • papers, authors, institutions, countries, journals • Measures of interaction: • research fronts, interdisciplinarity, collaboration

4. Basic and Relative Measures • Citations : count of incoming citations to a paper or a group of papers, or a citations per paper measure (citation impact) • Look at trends over time. • Refinement sometimes applied for subtraction of self-citations. Influenced by the field. • Expected citation rates: A measure of how often a specific item can be expected to be cited over time based on: • the year the item was published, • the journal it was published in and • the type of item it was (note, letter, review, regular article, etc.). • create a ratio of the sum of actual citations received divided by the sum of expected citation rates, to obtain a ratio of actual to expected citations. • Field Baselines: an average citation rate for a group of items, e.g, all regular articles, notes and reviews in all journals assigned to a specific field or discipline. • Baselines are computed for specific time periods that define both the citing and cited window used for counting. • Example: a baseline for the category of physics can be computed for cited items in all physics journals published 1991 to 1995 and cited by items, 1993 to 2005. The citation average for a selected group of papers in physics covering the same time period can then be compared with this baseline, and a relative measure created by dividing the group’s average by the baseline.

5. Who uses and benefits from Bibliometrics? • Policymakers, Research Directors and administrators in Universities and Goverment: • Is our funding or focus in specific areas resulting in good research? • How is my nation or institution faring against other comparable nations and institutes? • Where is our research being used? • Researchers: • Distill the most relevant papers from a group of search results. • Identify most influential researchers in a field: Who are the thought leaders? • Information specialists: • these are the information brokers - the liaison between the producers of knowledge and the consumers of knowledge. It is important that they be aware of all the tools and data available for their patrons.

6. Chilean Publication output Overall output Relative to world growth Chilean growth: 45% World growth: 40% 67% increase, 1981-2004 Avg inc @ 6% per period Up 16% Up 100% Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

7. Chile: Citation impact Impact relative to the world average Overall impact Chile impact in 2004: 3.62 Up 35% Up 50% Chile impact in 1981: 1.81 Up 60% World baseline impact, 1981: 2.86 World baseline Impact, 2004: 4.42 In 1981, there was a 37% difference between Chilean and world impact levels. By 2004, the difference had declined to 18%. Chile is raising the bar.

8. South America Ranking by Output and Impact (2000-2004) By using cites/paper (impact), we consider the size of the country. Impact normalizes by size of country. For example, Switzerland is one of the most highly cited nations in the world though it is also one of the smallest. In the most recent 5 years, Chile is third in publication output. But Chile ranks the first relative to the other South American countries in cites/paper. Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

9. Growth of output in South American countries Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

10. Growth in impact of South American countries Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

11. Relative Specialization: Chile contributes0.3% of all world papers Space Science: 2.7 Ecology 0.6 Mathematics 0.5 Plant & Animal Science 0.5 Agricultural Science 0.4 Percent papers in country: What fields produce the most papers? Clinical Medicine 17.6% Chemistry 14.7% Space Science 12.2% Plant & Animal 10.2% Physics 7.9% Chile: Field specialization Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

12. Field Impact World Avg Relative for field impact Space Science 8.8 7.1 1.25 Mathematics 1.3 1.25 1.04 Physics 3.4 3.6 0.94 Geosciences 3.1 3.4 0.91 Agricultural Sciences 2.0 2.4 0.85 Chile: Relative impact Chile is above the world average in 2 of 24 fields, i.e. Space Science and Mathematics and is closing in on 3 others Source: National Science Indicators, 1981-2004 – standard version

13. Most-cited paper in Biochemistry/Biophysics Citation Metrics Citation information Authors Organizations Reprint Author Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

14. A most-cited paper in Aquatic Sciences Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

15. Collaborating countries This shows the countries that Chile collaborated with 1981-2004 and illustrates the global expression of research. Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

16. Most-cited Chilean-authored papers, 2000-2004

17. Most prolific author: Bernabe Luis Rivas Universidad de Concepción 228 papers overall, 1981-2004. 97 papers, 2000-2005 Example from the 2000-2005 group

18. Most cited author outside of Space Science:Ramon Latorre, Universidad de Chile – Biology Department Prof. Latorre’s most cited article, 1981-2004. He has 3574 citations to 159 papers

19. Most prolific institutions Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

20. Most cited papers from top Chilean Universities Universidad de Chile Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

21. Most cited papers from top Chilean Universities Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

22. Most cited papers from top Chilean Universities Universidad de Concepción Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

23. Most cited papers from top Chilean Universities Universidad Austral de Chile Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

24. Measures of interaction: Citing Institutions These are the top 20 institutions citing Chilean papers. It shows the reach of Chilean research work. Top universities in the United States and UK as well as the universities in Tokyo and Sao Paulo are citing Chile’s research efforts.

25. Fields of specialization in institutions Universidad de Chile Universidad de Concepción Universidad Austral de Chile Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Universidad de Santiago Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

26. Journal rankings by papers Source: National Citation Report: 1981-2004 source, citing and cited papers

27. Essential Science Indicators, 1995-2005 - Provides Top 1% of institutions by one or more of 22 fields • Plant and Animal Science • Universidad de Chile #443 out of 702 • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile #601 out of 702 • Universidad Austral de Chile #673 out of 702 • Environmental • Universidad de Chile #302 out of 400 • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile #350 out of 400 • Engineering • Universidad de Chile #675 out of 926 • Clinical Medicine • Universidad de Chile #711 out of 2538 • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile #1071 out of 2538 • Chemistry • Universidad de Chile #588 out of 768 Source: Essential Science Indicators, 1995-2005

28. Hot Paper in Mathematics: Universidad Católica del Norte Source: Essential Science Indicators, 1995-2005

29. Papers citing Mathematics hot paper Source: Essential Science Indicators, 1995-2005

30. Conclusions • Bibliometric view of Chilean papers for the period 1981-2004 showed: • Chile’s research output has grown 67% over the period, with an average growth of 6%. • The impact or cites/paper has grown 50% and Chile is making strides towards the world baselines. While Chile is 3rd in the region in output, it is 1st in impact. • Clinical Medicine, Chemistry and Space Science are the top 3 fields of research output in Chile with the contributions in 4 fields exceeding the country’s overall world contribution • Institutional achievements and specializations at various universities • 7 of the 11 Spanish-language journals in this group were Chilean • Chilean contributions in the top 1% of fields from Plant and Animal Science through Chemistry • Overall conclusion: the literature indicates an active and growing research community with a global reach and growing impact

31. www.in-cites.com Editorial content related to Essential Science Indicators: • Papers • Journals • Scientists • Journals • Institutions • Countries

32. www.sciencewatch.com

33. www.esi-topics.com

34. Gracias! Mary Van Allen mary.vanallen@thomson.com